Status Breaker NOT showing

[clukeR7JR7]

Morning All,

Per this article:

How to create a status breaker for isometric drawings in AutoCAD Plant 3D? | AutoCAD Plant 3D 2019 |...

I have done what it says, no show/drop.

Here is what I have:

Any help be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Garrett.Brothers]

A few things:

1. Try changing the name ("SpecBreaker") to something unique.  I don't know if two elements having the same name can cause problems, but I'd avoid it as a general practice.
2. What's your new filter?  In other words, can you tell us the STATUS filter you made?  The guide makes it seem like you can just use the same filter as spec breaker.
3. I presume you made the proper changes to iso.atr, as the guide you posted said to.  Never hurts to confirm little things like this.
4. I don't know if annotations like this are added when connection/continuation piping is involved.  Pieces of piping in that theme don't receive BoM callouts and other normal annotations, so why would they receive PropertyBreakerSchemes?  That being said, it's half-on the default theme, so it might still invoke the scheme.  To test it, try changing the status of a component in the middle of the pipeline.  Does it show up there?

[clukeR7JR7]

Thank you Garrett and or Brothers,

Following your advice/ideas, which I agree with, still does not drop the breaker.

Here is what I have. Also changed a pipe to existing in the middle of the run.

Anything I am missing?

Thanks

[Garrett.Brothers · Accepted solution]

I dove in and did some testing myself.  I know why it isn't working.

The most important sections of this comment are the "summary" and the "conclusion."  If you want to skip over the details, you may.  I wrote it so you won't miss anything too important.

Summary

The guide works.  StatusBreaker works when all piping is on the Default theme.  However, the existing status is placed on the Existing piping theme.  Annotations don't work across themes, so no PropertyBreakerScheme is applied.

PropertyBreakerSchemes don't work when written in to the Existing piping theme.  They also do not work with the demolition status, though that's probably a bug.

Property Breaker across themes (doesn't work)

When you set a pipe's status to existing, plant will assign it to the Existing piping theme.  This is different than the Default theme, which most piping is assigned to.  Notice the change in appearance and the lack of most annotations:

I think PropertyBreakerSchemes don't work across themes.  At the very least, I can't think of an annotation that looks beyond its own theme.  The reason for this is each theme has its own set of annotation schemes.  Each theme is assigned to the iso independently; when something like DimensionToContinuation="true" causes themes to overlap, the dimensions do not automatically adjust.

Property Breaker within the Default theme (works)

Not all changes in status trigger a change in theme.  The guide you linked to shows a status change from New to Lose, but these pipes are both on the Default theme.  When I tried the guide myself, the annotation appeared:

You may have noticed that status only has three options by default:

To add another option, go to Project Setup > Plant 3D DWG Settings > Plant 3D Class Definitions > Piping and Equipment and select the Status property.  Click Edit... and use the Add Row... button to create a new status:

Property Breaker within the Default theme: Demolition piping (is glitched)

As long as this checkbox in Project Setup isn't checked, demolition piping should be on the Default theme.

However, even when this checkbox is disabled, demolition piping is included on the Existing piping theme.  Even when this is set to some other status (like Lose), demolition piping is still included on the Existing piping theme.  I suspect this is a bug.

Property Breaker within the Existing piping theme (doesn't work)

The Existing piping theme does not contain property breaker schemes.  Even when I added an AnnotationSchemes section in and included demolition status piping in the Existing piping theme, nothing showed up.  Someone more experienced than me might know how to get this annotation to work cross-theme.

Below is the initial XML setup for StatusBreaker on the Default theme:

This is the resulting Annotations node for the Existing piping theme I tried to use.  While it didn't work, it also didn't break the XML.

      <Annotations Enabled="false" ShowAllPortSizes="false">
        <AnnotationSchemes>
          <PropertyBreakerScheme Name="StatusBreaker" AnnotationStyle="SpecBreak" Tag="Left Right" LeaderStyle="AlwaysNonArrowed" Filter="SpecBreakItems" Field="Status" DefaultAnnotationStyle="Standard" DefaultLeaderStyle="Always" WordWrapLimit="10" EnableMultiple="true" />
        </AnnotationSchemes>
      </Annotations>

This is the resulting Iso; blue is existing, red is lose, yellow is demolition:

Conclusion

The guide you found works, but only if all piping shares a theme (and only on some themes).  I don't know if there's a way to do what you want with the Existing piping theme, as annotations typically don't reach across themes.

There's a chance I don't know what I'm talking about and there's still a really easy way to do this.  Anyone have any advice?  Could someone confirm my results?  ( @jabowabo ?  Sorry to keep pinging you, but I know you know isoconfig.xml!)

One possible solution would be to simulate the existing piping theme within the default theme.  This forum post links to this article and this article.

It's not ideal, and it would require some work, but the basic idea is to either add a new status and mimic the Existing piping theme [using layerschemes, as in the second article] so that it looks like the existing piping while being on the Default theme OR disable the Existing piping theme and make the "existing" status piping look like the Existing piping theme [using layerschemes instead of a theme].  You'll have to adjust the BoM properties as well as many of the LayerScheme filters, as existing piping shouldn't show up on the BoM.

Don't just follow these guides blindly, as I'm not sure if this would work.  I don't have enough intuition to say if it would with any confidence.  However, unless someone more clever than I am can share a better solution, this is the only idea I have.

[jabowabo · Accepted solution]

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@Garrett.Brothers wrote:

  Annotations don't work across themes, so no PropertyBreakerScheme is applied.

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This seems to me to be the correct answer. You'll have to use some other method to note the break. I don't think there is any other type of annotation that you can create to guarantee that the designations fall on the correct side of the break but maybe a standard annotation triggered on the field weld object or an iso note will meet the requirements.

[clukeR7JR7]

Thanks guys, I am going to play around with it when I get more time to. Ill keep you posted.

[joshua.bennettX3GFU]

I'm a little late to this thread - thanks to Garrett.Brothers and jabowabo for the detailed solutions.

I have a similar project where I want to show tie-ins, cut lines, and new/existing breaks. I couldn't get the latter working with the status field in Plant 3D for reasons noted in others' solutions. I did come up with a solution that didn't require too much work. That said, it wouldn't be particularly suitable for projects with large number of iso's as some manual manipulation of the annotations will be necessary herein (flipping new/exist, moving block on sheet). My steps are below. 

1. Create a block named "AnnoNewExistLimit". Use an existing block, then like the insulation limit one, save block as new name noted above, so you get the grips where you can flip new/exist text. Modify text and lines if desired. My block looks like the one attached. The "XX" is attribute tag with default = "NEW".
2. Add annotation style for the block to isoconfig.xml. Line of my .xml code looks like this:  <AnnotationStyle Name="NewExistLimit" TextStyle="AdskIsoAnnotation" BlockName="AnnoNewExistLimit" />
3. I want these new/exist lines, in my case, to be only at Field or Field Fit Welds associated with a TP number. So I created a field or field fit weld filter:  <Filter Name="FieldWeldorFieldFitWeld" Value="(Type='FieldFitWeld' OR Type='FieldWeld')" />
4. Add a component scheme for this item. Mine is here. It could be cleaned up a bit, the placement=ends wasn't doing much for me and I guess it's not really using the status field as is... but it doesn't disrupt the iso generator so I left it...  <ComponentScheme Name="NewExistLine" AnnotationStyle="NewExistLimit" Format="NEW" Enabled="true" Tag="XX" Alignment="SkewAligned" LeaderStyle="NoLeader" Filter="FieldWeldorFieldFitWeld" Fields="Status" Placement="Ends" />
5. Note that the filter may need to be corrected if you've got other field or field fits on your piping that are not associated with a TP or new/exist break. Perhaps one such as this, that filters weld type and only welds with a TP assigned: Value="(Type='FieldFitWeld' OR Type='FieldWeld') AND NOT [TieInNumber] IS NULL" />

What I get is shown in screenshot attached (my cut line anno's are set up the same way as this). Was wondering if anyone knows how I could get the breaks to show up exactly at the weld points (see "Desired Output" screenshot)? Tried setting up in dynamic block but couldn't get it working... right now it's keeping anno's out of the way but floating in space since it's set up with "NoLeader".

Thanks!

[Garrett.Brothers]

No idea. I don't think I've seen any of the out-of-the-box annotations control where they are placed relative to their objects (i.e., forcing an annotation to appear directly above or below the object). I would think your best approach is to make your new break annotation use leaders like the normal break annotations do.

[jabowabo]

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@joshua.bennettX3GFU wrote:

What I get is shown in screenshot attached (my cut line anno's are set up the same way as this). Was wondering if anyone knows how I could get the breaks to show up exactly at the weld points (see "Desired Output" screenshot)? Tried setting up in dynamic block but couldn't get it working... right now it's keeping anno's out of the way but floating in space since it's set up with "NoLeader".

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Dynamic blocks don't work. The iso routine 'breaks' all blocks in order to skew them which removes any dynamic properties. Annotations are placed wherever the iso engine determines - you have little control over this. I suggest using a leader and trying a PropertyBreakerScheme instead of a ComponentScheme for your annotation.

[joshua.bennettX3GFU]

@jabowabo @Garrett.Brothers Thanks for the replies, and apologies for not having this as a separate thread. I concluded that what I was trying to do was a too time consuming for what amounts to a fairly simple manual drag of the blocks. I did not realize that the dynamic block properties were nullified during isometric generation so that's good to know. The projects where I'm using Plant 3D typically have single-digits number of drawings and tie-ins. So moving the annotations in the .dwg file is ok, at least they're being populated and mainly the TP's labelling has worked well.

Thanks for the help!